Opposition parties on Friday submitted a fresh notice in Rajya Sabha seeking a motion to remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The fresh charges against the CEC include “continued partisan asymmetry in the enforcement of Model Code of Conduct”.The notice has been signed by 73 MPs while the requirement is 50 signatures.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that there are nine specific charges against the CEC on the ground of 'proven misbehaviour' and called his continuation as an assault on the Constitution.The opposition has accused the poll panel of not acting on complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “address to the nation” on April 18, ahead of assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Referring to concerns raised by various opposition parties, the notice said, “As on the date of this notice, Gyanesh Kumar has issued no show-cause notice, no advisory, and no public response to any of the said complaints.”Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and TMC leader Sagarika Ghose submitted the notice to the Rajya Sabha Secretary General.The notice was signed by members of opposition parties such as the Congress, TMC, SP, DMK, Left parties, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), RJD, IUML . “Like -minded” parties have signed the notice, it was stated.
The move comes days after similar notices submitted by opposition MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were rejected by the respective presiding officers. It was the first time that a notice seeking the removal of a CEC was submitted in Parliament.
In its earlier notices, the opposition had accused CEC Kumar of “failure to maintain independence and constitutional fidelity” and of acting under the “thumb of the executive”.However, in almost similar responses, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan had rejected the notices, holding that even if the allegations were assumed to be true, they did not meet the high constitutional threshold of “misbehaviour” required for his removal.
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